'Phantom' COVID-19 jab costs man his job

John Goldsmith says he has been trapped in a nightmare for months, ever since he turned up at a local Adelaide chemist in September expecting to get his first COVID-19 jab.

Instead, the pharmacist delivered this baffling news: Mr Goldsmith's immunisation record showed he had already had his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, two weeks earlier, on August 31.

The vaccine was supposedly given to him at a doctor's surgery in the Adelaide CBD, almost an hour away from where he lives.

"I didn't know what was going on, I never had the jab," Mr Goldsmith said.

John Goldsmith says he has been unable to fix a mistake in his immunisation status.

Mr Goldsmith said he had made dozens of calls to try to sort the mess out since then, all to no avail.

"I called Medicare, they said call the immunisation register. I called the immunisation register and they told me to ring Medicare," Mr Goldsmith said.

"This is my problem — I can't get the second jab, because I have not had the first jab.

"Yet, officially, I have had the first jab, so I can't get the first jab until it's removed from my (immunisation record).

"Confused yet? Well, so am I."

Mr Goldmsith's most pressing issue was he needed to be vaccinated for his job as a courier driver, which involved delivering items to hospitals and aged care homes.

Unable to get vaccinated, Mr Goldsmith said he was fired a month ago.

"I went to another job interview and the bloke asked if I was vaccinated," Mr Goldsmith said.

"I said, 'no' and I gave him the run-down of what has happened and he said, 'I can't give you a job until you are vaccinated'."

Mr Goldsmith's immunisation statement which says he has received one dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

The error on his immunisation register had put him in a perilous financial position, Mr Goldsmith said.

"I've had to sell my car just so I can survive, so that I can pay my rent and bills and buy food," he said.

"I need this sorted before I end up on the streets."

Mr Goldsmith said the mistake also meant he would not be able to see his family at Christmas, as his nephew had leukemia and he did not want to risk potentially exposing him to the virus while unvaccinated.

"Even if get this miraculously wiped off the system now, and I can go and get the jab today, I still won't get to see my family because (the vaccine) takes a while to build up in your system," he said.

"This has destroyed my life, how much more can I lose?"

Mr Goldsmith said it was physically impossible for him to have received the vaccine in Adelaide's CBD at 2.55pm on August 31, as his records suggested.

The courier said he was working on that day and his bank statement showed he had been in Tailem Bend, about an hour-and-a-half from the CBD, at 3.09pm — 14 minutes later.

In August, The Guardian reported some Australians, including healthcare workers, were struggling to have errors corrected on their immunisation records.

Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen said he sympathised with the situation Mr Goldsmith was in.

"We understand this is a challenging time for Mr Goldsmith and we're working with him to make sure his immunisation record is correct," he said in a statement to 9News.com.au.

"We are currently working closely with both Mr Goldsmith and the medical clinic to resolve this matter.

"Services Australia takes the integrity of the Australian Immunisation Register very seriously and has systems and processes in place to help ensure providers report correct information.

"However, with a vaccine rollout of this scale for millions of Australians, there is the potential for human error to occur from time to time."

Contact reporter Emily McPherson at em********@******om.au.